Mobile device users often download applications through mobile application stores, or “app stores.” Such app stores may be an accessed through a store client application installed on a user's mobile device or through another network resource, such as a webpage accessible from a mobile device or general purpose computer. Application store owners have an incentive to attract continued visits from users, for example so the application store may present users with additional purchase options.
Many mobile device applications include a variety of metrics based on things such as in-game accomplishments. Taking a game as an example of a mobile device application, the game's user might achieve high scores, earn achievements, obtain unlockable in-game items, gain levels for an in-game character, or make other progress within the game which the game may track as various types of metrics. A mobile game's developer may provide a website which displays users' in-game metrics, such as those described above, so that users can compare and compete against each other. However, this requires additional effort from a game developer and continued hosting of the website. Furthermore, users might not be aware of the website because different game developer likely host separate websites displaying metrics for only their games. A user who uses a number of different mobile applications may thus need to visit a variety of different websites in order to compare his in-game progress against others.
As a related problem, mobile applications are often inefficient in that they fail to capture valuable data concerning how users actually use them. A mobile application's developer may invest significant resources into creating a new mobile application and may release that application for downloadable sale only to find that sales are short-lived. The developer may be faced with little information other than sales numbers and occasional user reviews. Such reviews may not reflect an accurate cross-section of the application's users, as they tend to be left by users who are sufficiently motivated to invest their own time in creating a review.